Campus & Community

Jeffrey McCune, PhD, has been named director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program at Washington University in St. Louis. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York, the program aims to increase diversity in higher education by encouraging talented but underrepresented students to pursue doctorates in the humanities and social sciences.

Olin Business School and the Human Rights Campaign — the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans — will host an LGBT Workplace Inclusion Conference from 8:30 a.m.-noon Thursday, Aug. 14. The conference will take place in Bauer Hall, Room 240.​

Richard L. Wahl, MD, has been named the Elizabeth E. Mallinckrodt Professor and head of radiology at the School of Medicine. He also will serve as director of the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.

Barbara Schaal, PhD, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor, is one of 15 scientists from academia and industry named to the new Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the foundation July 23.

Need somewhere to host a group? Check out the newly designated Washington University Conference Room at the Chase Park Plaza hotel in the Central West End. The room is available for use by WUSTL faculty and staff. 

Mary Corcoran has been named assistant dean for finance at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Her appointment, which marks her return to the university after six years at Stanford University, is effective Aug. 21.

Two Washington University in St. Louis administrators are receiving the Campus Leader Who Cares Award, presented by the Campus Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Association. Steven P. Hoffner, associate vice chancellor for operations, and H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, are receiving the award for their commitment to and focus on environmental stewardship, health and safety issues at WUSTL and beyond.

Larry J. Shapiro, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, recently surprised three staff members with service awards. Pam Gassner was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award; Peggy Frisella, the Research Support Award; and Amy Stabenow, the Operations Staff Award.  Pictured are Lynn Cornelius, MD, Gassner and Shapiro.

Emre Toker has been appointed managing director of the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Toker most recently served as entrepreneurship senior mentor-in-residence at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. The appointment is effective Aug. 15, according to H. Holden Thorp, PhD, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.​

William Thomas Thach Jr., MD, professor emeritus of neurobiology, died Tuesday, July 1, 2014, in Town and Country. He was 77. A neuroscience researcher and clinical neurologist, Thach was a renowned expert and pioneering researcher on the cerebellum.